About Button Forge

Button Forge is an Action Bar addon that allows you to create completely new Action Bars (as many as you want). Each bar can have up to 1500 buttons organised into rows and columns (up to 5000 buttons total).

Your existing UI wont be changed by Button Forge, it will continue to function and look how it currently does. The bars you create are totally independent allowing you to simply and cleanly add additional action bars to your UI.

The new buttons operate almost identically to the default action buttons (i.e. drag and drop actions as you normally would, etc); there are a few subtle differences though, such as the ability to drop non usable items into the buttons (handy for keeping count of items you're harvesting).

Creation and configuration of the bars is done via the mouse using a GUI interface. This GUI is designed to be straight forward and easy to use, although there is documentation for both basic and advanced configuration options below.

Features

Create as many bars as you wish (theoretical limit is 5000)

Create as many buttons as you wish (up to 1500 per bar with a total maximum of 5000)

Setup visibility macros for your bars so that they can be shown and hidden (even during combat)

Button Facade Support

Localisations

enUS

koKR Translation provided by chkid (주시자의눈 of Elune)

ruRU Translation provided by Another

zhCN Translation provided by s.F

deDE Translation provided by Rumorix/PUNK2018

Player Guide

kobrrage1 has written up an interesting How To giving step by step instructions for putting together a quite advanced button configuration that can be seen with images on http://www.rage-web.com/buttonforge

How Do I (Basics)

Enter into configuration mode
Configuration mode is where you will do things such as create new bars and buttons, position them, etc...
There are several ways, any of the following can be used:

Enter the Button Forge page in Interface->Addons and use the button found there

Create a Key Binding in the Key Bindings menu under the Button Forge section

Drag the Configuration Mode button found on the Button Forge toolbar onto a Button Forge bar, it can then be used to quickly enter and exit configuration mode (recommended)

Exit configuration mode
All of the ways to activate config mode will also deactivate it

Create a bar
Click the Create Bar button, then click on screen where you want your new bar

Destroy a bar
Click the Destroy Bar button, then click on the bar you wish to destroy

Add or remove rows and columns of buttons on a bar
Use the Column and Row drag icons on the bar to adjust how many rows and columns of buttons there are

Change the scale of a bar
Use the Scale icon on the bar to adjust the size of the buttons

Position the bar
Click on the bar background and drag it to the desired location

Make the bar only visible for a given talent spec
Use the Spec 1/2 Buttons found on the left side of the bar (a faded icon means it wont be displayed for that talent spec)

Make the bar visible when in a vehicle
By default bars are invisible while in a vehicle, use the vehicle button found on the left side of the bar to change this (a faded icon means it wont be displayed while in a vehicle)

How Do I (Advanced)

Enable advanced configuration controls for the bars

Click the advanced tools button on the Button Forge toolbar to toggle the display of the advanced options

Set key bindings for the buttons

Click the keyboard icon on the bar to enter Key Bind mode

Click the button you wish to set a binding for

On the binding dialog that has popped up click the key binding button (similar to the standard Key Binding UI)

Press the key binding you want to assign

The dialog can be closed by clicking the x this will close the dialog but leave the bar in Key Bind mode, or press esc to completely exit Key Bind mode

Notes:

Key Bindings in Button Forge are implemented as overrides, this means that any existing bindings wont be removed, but if identical the override will be triggered instead (at least provided the bar is visible on screen)

Button Forge currently wont inform you if the binding already exists on another Button Forge button and it will allow multiple bars to have the same binding, this feature allows some advance ui configurations to be created which will be described further down

If multiple Button Forge bars have the same key binding it will be ambiguous which button will be triggered, however if only one bar is currently visible that is the button that will be triggered

The Button Forge UI for Key Bindings may see some alteration in v1 (I feel the flow of creating bindings is not yet as smooth as it could be)

Make a bar only visible while in combat... or out of combat, or while stealthed, cat form, etc...

Any macro conditional in the game can potentially also be used to control if a Button Forge bar is hidden or visible (even during combat)

To setup a visibility macro click the Eye icon and type in the conditional and then press enter (or escape to cancel)... Some basic examples are:

[combat] hide; show

[stealth, harm] show; hide

[form:3] show; hide

Notes:

Visibility macros are more commonly known as visibility state drivers (I just call them visibility macros to draw attention to the fact that you use macro conditionals to control the visibility)

The Spec and Vehicle show/hide options (the ones just above the eye icon) also use the visibility macro to control when the bar is displayed. If you specify a visibility conditional and also have one or more of the Spec/Vehicle options set to hide then [U]behind the scenes[/U] the necessary rules will be prepended to your visibility macro for the bar...
e.g:

Spec 1 is hidden, and Vehicle is hidden, no visibility macro is set would result in the following state driver: [spec:1] hide; [vehicleui] hide; show

Vehicle hidden, and the combat macro example from above is set would result in the following state driver: [spec:1] hide; [vehicleui] hide; [combat] hide; show

Spec 1/2 both shown, Vehicle shown and no visibility macro set: ...No visibility driver will be set for the bar, and it will always be visible

Make the actions on a bar change depending on combat status, or while stealthed, or cat form, etc...

This actually can't be done, but the same effect can be achieved by taking visibility macros a step further.
You can place several bars into the same position on screen and setup visibility macros so that only 1 is displayed at any given time, I will describe the following example to illustrate how to do this.

Lets say you are a druid and want a bar in the center of the screen to have actions for catform and bearform in the same position, and to swap between them depending on your current form:

Create a bar and position it where you want, set it's scale and the number of buttons you want on it

Optionally add a label to it to help identify it easier in the interface (lets make this one the bear bar)

Drag the abilities you want on to it

Set the visibility macro to [bonusbar:3] show; hide

Create another bar place it in the same position as the first one... You might notice that it has docking to make this really easy

Double click the scale button to default the bar to have the same scale as the first bar (double click again will revert back to the standard scale of 1)

Optionally label the bar (for cat form this time)

Drag the abilities you want to it

Set the visibility macro to [bonusbar:1] show; hide

Exit configuration mode and give it a try

If you also wanted to setup key bindings you could do this as well since you can reuse bindings. The buttons in each position on the two bars can have the same binding since only one bar will show up at a time (if at all).
Also note that if you want to alternate between which bar you are working on during configuration mode you can use the Send to Front and Send to Back icons so you don't have to move bars out of the way.

Make tabs for bars so that it is easier to configure bars located in the same place on screen

Set a label for the bar and position the top left corner of the bar be the same as another bars. Each bar that has a label set will have that label organised from left to right above the bars. Clicking the respective tab (label) will bring that bar to the top.

Note: Even without a tab for the bar you can still bring it to the front or send it to the back by clicking on it's Send To Front and Senf To Back buttons respectively.

Create a bonus bar (contains the abilities when you enter a vehicle, possess another unit, or the special abilities given during specific fights)

This can be done using the Create Bonus Bar button. Note that the standard Bonus Bar will continue to function as normal so creating a Button Forge bonus bar is purely optional.

Notes:

The Button Forge bonus bar is a clone of Bonus Bar 5; that is the action bar that receives special actions at certain times during game play (e.g. the actions you can use in a vehicle, or while possessing another unit, etc)

It is possible to create multiple BF bonus bars

The BF Bonus Bar is almost identical to a standard BF Bar except for the following:

Whenever the Bonus Bar has the number of cols or rows updated it will attempt to replace any missing bonus actions if they have been removed from the bar (this makes it easy to change from a horizontal to vertical bar)

All the actions found on the Button Forge bonus bar can be dragged into different positions, and also onto other BF bars (by default the Bonus Bar has the buttons locked, so this would need to be changed first)

Changing around the actions on a BF bonus bar will have no effect on the normal Bonus Bar

Enable Right Click Self Cast

This can be done using the Right Click Self Cast button.

F.A.Q

You may have some questions not covered above, I will try to address those here.

Why do all bars and buttons show up in configuration mode even when some are configured not to show up currently?

This is done so that you always can configure a bar even if it has a rule set to prevent it from being visible. This also means you can assign actions to bars that you otherwise wouldn't be able to without having to temporarily unset their visibility macro etc...

Why do certain bars/buttons hide in configuration mode when I enter combat?

This happens because sometimes combat may happen when you least expect it. So that you don't have a messy UI which could make it very hard for you to respond to the threat, the Bars and buttons will obey their display rules when in combat regardless of if you are in configuration mode or not.

Why does my key combination trigger some strange action when in configuration mode?

If you have the same key binding for multiple buttons it could be triggering any of them... and most likely not the one you intend! This is because while in configuration mode all buttons are visible and so it is ambigous which key binding to use, while this is annoying (it even trips me up sometimes) it will correct itself once you exit configuration mode (or enter combat).

Why does my key combination trigger some strange action when not in configuration mode?

This will most likely be because you have used the same key binding for multiple buttons and those buttons are visible at the same time, in such a case you will need to either choose a different binding, or configure the display rules for the bars such that only one of the buttons is visible at a time (please note that even if empty buttons are hidden, the key binding will still apply... it is only when the bar itself is configured to hide that the binding wont apply).

Why can't I allocated more buttons to my bar?

Several configuration options wont work while in combat. Or alternatively you may have hit the upper limit for the number of buttons on the bar (currently 1500), or the total number of allowed buttons may be exceeded (currently 5000).

Why can't I set the scale?

Several configuration options wont work while in combat. Or alternatively the desired scale may cause the bar to exceed the size of the screen in which case the scale will be rejected.

I've setup bars for my different druid forms but when switching between them the bars dissappear briefly?!

This is because the visibility rules are treated exactly and there may be a brief swap over period where none of the conditionals are true.

E.g. If you were using [form:1] show; hide for Bear, and [form:3] show; hide for cat to show the bar, when you switch between cat and bear form there is actually a brief period where you are neither of those forms and so neither of those bars will show.

To get around this issue use the [bonusbar:#] conditional in place of the form conditional. It responds to shapeshift changes etc but will keep the bar available the same length of time the default ui keeps it available. (this could also apply to other classes and conditionals where the bonusbar may be a slightly better choice)

Why doesn't my bar have a tab?

Either the bar has not been assigned a label, or its the only bar with its Top Left corner in that position...
If you wish for the bar to have a tab either assign it a label and/or align its top left corner to another bars top left corner (auto docking will take care of this when dragging the bar close to another... except in the case mentioned next)

Why aren't my bars auto-docking?

This is most likely because you are in combat, it is not possible to autodock in this case unfortunately... Note also that auto docking will only take place when the top left corner of two bars get fairly close to each other.

Bonus Actions are appearing on my Bonus Bar when I change the number of rows/cols, why?

This is intentional so that changing the orientation of the bar is easy... Note that having multiple rows and columns could sometimes result in the abilities being repopulated into locations which might seem strange, this is due to the specific rules of how the bonus actions are repopulated (always remember an action wont be populated back onto the bar if it is already there, and also that button positions are always counted from left to right, top to bottom).

Why can I sometimes trigger actions on the BF bonus bar even when Bonus Bar 5 is not active (and I'm seeing the blue Bonus Action number icons)

This is because sometimes the bonus actions assigned remain available even after the bonus bar is gone (e.g. Mind of the Beast), I believe this is the case when it is for actions you could trigger anyway (e.g. if a hunter possesses his pet, even after the possession ends all the pets actions are still available and valid).

The default (and recommended) behaviour is for the bonus bar to be hidden when not available.

There are no raise and lower aim commands on the Bonus Bar even while in a vehicle that supports them

This is because the action that the standard raise and lower buttons have (which is raise/lower while held down) cannot be duplicated by an addon; instead the the aim can only be raised/lowered in increments. For this first release of BF with Bonus Bar support I have decided to not create buttons to do this... (If people request it I can look to introduce it however).

Note that using mouse look to raise lower will work as normal, as will the standard raise and lower buttons.

Addon Status

As the addon has only recently been released I have marked it as beta, although it is intended to be fit for use. I am still performing fine tuning both to the GUI and also to the display update of actions on the buttons (particularly surrounding macros and low mana/energy/rage/runic power situations).

The following is a general list of what I am looking at:

Low mana/energy/rage/runic power situations

Go through and check that all macro conditionals cause macro display updates (this is actually quite an involved process...)

Improve companion (mount/critter) usability indicators

Review how key bindings are configured (I anticipate that I will be adjusting this as I feel it is not yet a smooth process)

Fine tune general aspects of the GUI

Look into providing a couple of different button skins to choose from - (ButtonFacade is not an option at this point in time)

Add information messages for when configuration actions fail (e.g. because of combat)

@ Bigabyte I have noticed the same problem. I play in Fullscreen sometimes but various sized split screen or cascading windows most of the time. I would love to be able to anchor & lock the BF bars to the whole or to the center point of the Parent UI, They always shift sideways right or left (never up or down) when I resize the game window & they shift separately from each other... a right side bar might move 6" to the left, another might disappear entirely off of the right side of the screen except a thin shiny edge that can't be dragged back. I've seen them disappear under other UI elements. get stuck, semi-visible, non-interactive under the minimap.

When in my druid, tank and bear form, "Thrash" on the native action bar swipes as usual but the exact same button on the buttonforge bar does NOT work. This is true of several other buttons as well. It's also happening on my son's account and separate computer. This seems to be the same problem being reported by Madriel54 four days ago.

When in my druid, tank and bear form, "Thrash" on the native action bar swipes as usual but the exact same button on the buttonforge bar does NOT work. This is true of several other buttons as well. It's also happening on my son's account and separate computer. This seems to be the same problem being reported by Madriel54 four days ago.

Thank you so much for your efforts to keep this updated & posting not only here but on the WowInterface site for those of us who have migrated elsewhere since the Curse legacy client is no longer in play.

Is it possible to alter the aspect ratio of the buttons on a particular bar?

I'm attempting to set the UI buttons to approximate the appearance of my input suite and both my G13 and the NumPad have non-square buttons on them.

I'd be happy with just being able to make them rectangles at need, 2 "buttons" high by 1 "button" wide or 2 "buttons" wide by 1 "button" high. I don't need full control of the shapes, but being able to fiddle with basic height/width of the button frames themselves would be very help to me.

I don't mind going into the Lua myself, but I'm not sure where I can without messing things up.

I love this addon and I've read the docs, but can't find a way to switch out bars based on some trigger. Rather than relying on spec/form changes, I'd like to be able to swap out between bars, much like rolling the spinner on the main bar in the UI. Basically letting me choose which one of some small number of bars to have enabled at a given time.

Does anyone know of how to fix the LUA code to allow for Equipment sets to be placed on the bars again? Everything else I use it for, works fine except for this. It is a chore to open up my character panel and change sets. I prefer just hitting the buttons on my bar.

Is there a way to anchor the action bars to another element of the ui (e.g. UIParent) rather than setting an absolute position with coords? That way I could resize my WoW window without messing up my UI

Bigabyte.........hold down the "shift" button while dragging the bars. :)

That's not what I meant. I want to horizontally center my bars on UIParent so when I resize my WoW window they'll always be centered. Now they are positioned with a fixed set of coords (pixels from left, pixels from bottom), and that's ok if I keep my window maximed but when I resize it my UI gets messed up.

I hope I made myself clear this time, I know my english isn't flawless so if you need further explanations don't hesitate to ask ;)

For Demon Hunter Vengeance spec this addon appears to be pulling in the spell ids for the Havoc spec. The icons appear correct on the screen but if you look at ButtonForge.lua in your SavedVariables folder you see the wrong spells.